Thor: Ragnarok Director Is Typically Leftfield Choice From New Zealand

With Flight Of The Concords associations and the vampire comedy What We Do In The Shadows to his name, New Zealand-born writer/director/actor (he appeared in Green Lantern) Taiki Waititi is a typically leftfield choice for Marvel to direct Thor: Ragnarok.

According to The Hollywood Reporter Waititi is “in negotiations” which in The Hollywood Reporter speak means it’s all but a done deal. Allegedly the New Zealander beat out competition including Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), Rob Letterman (Monsters Vs Aliens) and Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story).

Waititi was an original member of what became The Flight Of The Concords when they were a five-piece called So You’re a Man. He later wrote and directed a couple of episodes of the Flight Of The Concords TV series. In 2013, he co-directed the New Zealand-based vampire comedy mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows with Concorder Jemaine Clement. He also has a writing credit on Disney’s upcoming Moana.

So, not a director who may have appeared in your most likely list, but Marvel has had a lot of success with directors who probably never featured in their most likely lists, let alone anybody else’s. Waititi could be the next James Gunn or Joe and Anthony Russo.